Former world champion to be guest of honor for mountain bike fundraiser

It's been 17 years since Juli Furtado competed against the best in the world in mountain bike racing.

But at 47, she's still making her mark.

Furtado, a member of both the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame and the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame, will lead a pack of 300 mountain bike riders as the guest of honor Sunday at the annual Marin County Bicycle Coalition Dirt Fondo fundraising ride.

Furtado, a resident of Santa Cruz who expends most of her energy these days expanding and refining her line of "Juliana" women-specific mountain bikes, did not hesitate to lend her support for the event, especially considering the venue.

The full 45-mile scenic ride starts in Sausalito, winds through Marin and includes a 2,100-foot climb up Mt. Tam, the birthplace of mountain biking in the U.S.

"I love to ride in the area," Furtado said. "When they asked me to participate this year, I didn't hesitate to say yes."

The event, which is limited to 300 riders, sold out last weekend, according to MCBC event director Tom Boss.

"But anybody who still wants to participate can check in and put their name on a waiting list," Boss said. "There are always a couple of returned tickets."

All proceeds from the event benefit the MCBC, which uses profits for mountain biking environmental stewardship, education and expanded trail opportunities, Boss said.

Furtado started her athletic career as the youngest member of the U.S. National Ski team. At 16, she was the top-ranked slalom skier in the world. Although her heart was willing, her knees refused to cooperate, and after undergoing several operations, Furtado retired and switched to mountain biking.

"I traveled the world with the U.S. ski and was very close to making the Olympics," Furtado said. "The experience shaped my life."

For Furtado, mountain biking was a different sport, but pretty much the same results. She climbed to the top in a hurry.

In 1989, she won the U.S. National Road Championship and in 1990 she won the cross-country event in the first official Mountain Bike World Championship, held in Durango, Colo. In 1992 she won the downhill world championship.

By 1996, Furtado won her third World Cup championship and was headed to the Olympics in Atlanta.

As it turned out, that was the beginning of the end for her competitive mountain biking career.

"1996 was a really tough, tough year," she said. "I was inconsistent. Some races I did really well and sometimes really poorly. It was especially tough since I had always prided myself on being consistent."

Obviously something was amiss. After a subpar effort at the Olympics, Furtado was diagnosed with lupus, a chronic inflammatory disease that occurs when a body's immune system attacks its own tissues and organs.

"I was sick," she said. "I tried to race, but it didn't work out."

Furtado retired from competitive mountain bike racing in 1997.

Although there is no cure for lupus, Furtado says she has the disease under control.

"I just roll with the punches," she said. "I have some bad days once in while, but it doesn't correlate with the exertion of mountain biking. It just is what it is. I still enjoy solo mountain bike rides."

Other guest riders at Sunday's MCBC Dirt Fondo include Vanessa Hauswald, 38, a resident of Petaluma and the executive director of Northern California High School Cycling.

"Juli and I are trying to engage and inspire more women to come out and ride," said Hauswald, who serves as an ambassador for Furtado's "Julianna" line of mountain bikes. "I think some people are intimidated by mountain biking, but anyone can do any ride as long as they do it at there own pace. I'd encourage everybody to come out, especially those who haven't ridden Mt. Tam. It's a spectacular ride and for a great cause."